mike52
Well-Known Member
So as the title says...MY WORST DAY ON THE LAKE..Was fishing the PBF (local bass trail in mid Tn) around 1998/99 on Barkley Lake out of the Ky state park at Cadis Ky. Friend told me about a spot that we both fished about 30 miles up river that was holding bass around 900am when they started pulling water. Practice day was Friday so Thursday I had some new tires put on trailer. I got to the State Park about 10/10:30 .Reserved a slip for the night and went out fishing. Went to spot upriver about 20 miles caught a few fish then left( was back-up for the other spot ) On way back to marina, there was a large thunderstorm coming my way. Thought I could outrun it to the slip, BUT NO it caught me about 2 miles short. Remembered a slough that a had a covered pier and headed for it .There was a Boat in slip but it had an overhang that I could put my boat 90 degrees to dock. Got covered up from most if the storm while sitting on boat with feet on dock and facing away from river. Been there about 45 min to an hour when suddenly I was in the water. While I was facing away from the river, a barge can up river, pushing good 3 ft wake, After the shock of being in the water I climbed up the outboard to inside of boat. No injuries, but watch shot, billfold waterlogged. made it back to marina ,ate a small supper and went to sleep.I had a van at the time that had a fold-down couch to sleep on. Got up Tournament day and was assigned a start number. Started out of creek that was the starting area ,turned south and was going good , untill I got the the bridge across the river, Fog was so thick that I could not see the front of the boat ,shut down to fast idle and decided to see if I could find bank so I could fish till fog lifted. Throwed a buzz bait and acught 3 keepers right off . then went around the bend (THIS WAS DEVILS ELBOW FOR THOSE THAT KNOW THE LAKE) fished a rock pile and caught good keeper.So with 4 keepers and the fog lifted I decided to go to the HoneyHole. Started the motor and it sounded like there was a small man with a ball peen hammer inside trying to get out.The boat would come up and run ok but I wasn't going to go 20/thirty mile away, so I make it back to the creek that marina was in and tied to fish, but my mind was not in it. So decided to put boat on trailer ,weight fish and go home. Got to my van and noticed that there was a flat on trailer tire(new tire) so assume that someone was sitting on trailer finder and broke off valve stem. So my trailer and all the rest of the boaters trailers were backed upon the sidewalk, so I thought I would pull trailer off the sidewalk and change tire. Well some SOB had parked so close to my van that I could not get in the drivers door, so after saying a few bad words about the drivers mother I went in by the silding door on side I pulled the trailer off to where I could put spare on. Broke lug nuts loose and jacked trailer up, removed tire. You know the type of spare tire locks that are two piece and spin around to tighten? Well they had become cross treaded and would not spin off. After many swings of the tire tool the lock came off with the spare falling to the ground which caused the jack to fall from under the trailer. Now this occurred in August and the temps were high. With sweat soaked shirt/hair I got the van and boat coming toward home. Thankfully I had no more problems on the way home, if I would have had problems the boat would have been sitting on side of the Interstate. BTW I was 4 ozs out of the money!!! Turned out that the flywheel had worked loose and causing all the noise
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